Mary Daly

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Mary Daly
Full name	Mary Daly
Born	October 16, 1928 (1928-10-16) (age 81)
Era	20th century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Feminist philosophy
Main interests	Feminist theology, ontology, metaphysics
Influenced by Paul Tillich, Martin Buber, Thomas Aquinas

Mary Daly (b. October 16, 1928, Schenectady, New York) is a radical feminist philosopher and theologian. She taught at Boston College, a Jesuit-run institution, for 33 years. Daly agreed to be retired from Boston College in 1999, after violating university policy by refusing to allow male students in her Women's Studies classroom; she did, however, agree to teach them separately.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Education 2 Career 3 Works 4 Controversy and criticism 5 Views on men 6 Notes 7 Bibliography 8 External links

[edit] Education

Before obtaining her two doctorates in sacred theology and philosophy from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, she received her B.A. in English from The College of Saint Rose, her M.A. in English from The Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in religion from St. Mary's College.

[edit] Career

Daly taught classes at Boston College from 1967 to 1999, including courses in theology, feminist ethics, and patriarchy.

Daly was first threatened with dismissal when, following the publication of her first book, The Church and the Second Sex (1968), she was issued a terminal contract. As a result of support from the (then all-male) student body and the general public, however, Daly was ultimately granted tenure.

Daly's refusal to admit male students to some of her classes at Boston College also resulted in disciplinary action. While Daly argued that their presence inhibited class discussion; Boston College responded that her actions were in violation of title IX of federal law requiring the College to ensure that no person was excluded from an education program on the basis of sex, and of the University's own non-discrimination policy insisting that all courses be open to both male and female students.

In 1998, a discrimination claim against the college by two male students was backed by the Center for Individual Rights, a conservative advocacy group. Following further reprimand, Daly absented herself from classes rather than admit the male students.^[1] Boston College removed her tenure rights, citing a verbal agreement by Daly to retire. She brought suit against the college disputing violation of her tenure rights and claiming she was forced out against her will, but her request for an injunction was denied by Middlesex Superior Court Judge Martha Sosman.^[2]

An out-of-court settlement was reached in which Daly agreed that she had retired from her faculty position.^[3] Daly maintains that Boston College wronged her students by depriving her of her right to teach freely to only female students.^[4] She documented her account of the events in the 2006 book, Amazon Grace: Recalling the Courage to Sin Big.

Daly recently protested the commencement speech of Condoleezza Rice at Boston College and continues to speak on campuses around the United States as well as internationally.^[5]

[edit] Works

Daly has published a number of works, and is perhaps best known for her second book, Beyond God the Father (1973). Beyond God the Father is the last book in which Daly really considers God a substantive subject. She lays out her systematic theology, following Tillich’s example.^[6] It is often regarded as a foundational work in feminist theology, Beyond God the Father is her attempt to explain and overcome androcentrism in Western religion. It is notable for its playful writing style and its attempt to rehabilitate "God-talk" for the women's liberation movement by critically building on the writing of existentialist theologians such as Paul Tillich and Martin Buber. While the former increasingly characterized her writing, she soon abandoned the latter.

Daly’s Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (1978) argues that men throughout history have sought to oppress women. In this book she moves beyond her previous thoughts on the history of patriarchy to the focus on the actual practices that, in her view, perpetuate patriarchy, which she calls a religion.^[6]

Daly’s Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy (1984) and Webster’s First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language (1987) introduce and explore an alternative language to explain the process of exorcism and ecstasy. In Wickedary Daly provides definitions as well as chants that she says can be used by women to free themselves from patriarchal oppression. She also explores the labels that she says patriarchal society places on women to prolong what she sees as male domination of society. Daly says it is the role of women to unveil the liberatory nature of labels such as “Hag”, “Witch”, and “Lunatic”.^[7]

Daly's work continues to influence feminism and feminist theology, as well as the developing concept of biophilia as an alternative and challenge to social necrophilia. She is an ethical vegetarian and animal rights activist. Gyn/Ecology, Pure Lust, and Webster's First New Intergalactic Wickedary all endorse anti-vivisection and anti-fur positions.^{[citation needed]} Daly was a member of the advisory board of Feminists For Animal Rights, a group which is now defunct.

Daly has created her own theological anthropology based around the context of what it means to be a woman. She has created a dualistic thought-praxis that separates the world into the world of false images that create oppression and the world of communion in true being. She labels these two areas Foreground and Background respectively. Daly considers the Foreground the realm of patriarchy and the Background the realm of the Woman. Daly argues that the Background is under and behind the surface of the false reality of the Foreground. The Foreground, for Daly, is a distortion of true being. The Foreground is the paternalistic society in which she says most people live. It has no real energy, but sucks the “life energy” of women residing in the Background. Daly explains that women can be both in the Foreground and in the Background. In her view, the Foreground creates a world of poisons that contaminate natural life. She calls the male-centered world of the Foreground necrophilic, hating all living things. In contrast, the Background is conceived of as a place where all things that are alive connect. ^[8][9]

[edit] Controversy and criticism

In Gyn/Ecology, Daly wrote that the number of people killed as witches during the Witch Hunt in early modern Europe added up to nine million people, mostly women. This high figure, which is rejected by most researchers,^[10] caused her to coin the term "Gynocide" and to draw comparisons with the Holocaust. Nearly all estimates today range from 60,000 to 100,000 people killed between the 14th and 18th centuries.^[11]

Also in Gyn/Ecology, Daly asserted her negative view of transsexual people, whom she referred to as "Frankensteinian." She labels transsexualism a "male problem" and claims that post-operative transsexuals exist in a "contrived and artifactual condition."^[12] Daly was also the dissertation advisor to Janice Raymond, whose dissertation, published in 1979 as The Transsexual Empire, is critical of "transsexualism." Transsexual activist Riki Wilchins has accused Daly of being transphobic.

In a personal letter to Daly, published after four months without any reply, Audre Lorde expressed a fondness for Daly's work, but expressed concern over Gyn/Ecology, citing homogenizing tendencies, and a refusal to acknowledge the "herstory and myth" of non-white women. ^[13] The letter, and Daly's decision not to publicly respond, greatly affected the reception of Daly's work among other feminist theorists, and has been described as a "paradigmatic example of challenges to white feminist theory by feminists of color in the 1980s." ^[14]

[edit] Views on men

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In an interview with What Is Enlightenment? magazine, Daly said, "If life is to survive on this planet, there must be a decontamination of the Earth. I think this will be accompanied by an evolutionary process that will result in a drastic reduction of the population of males."^[15]

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

• Natural Knowledge of God in the Philosophy of Jacques Maritain. Officium Libri Catholici, 1966. OCLC 2219525
• The Church and the Second Sex. Harper & Row, 1968. OCLC 1218746
• Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation. Beacon Press, 1973. ISBN 0807027685
• Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Beacon Press, 1978. ISBN 0807015105
• Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy. Beacon Press, 1984. ISBN 0807015040
• Websters' First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language, Conjured in Cahoots with Jane Caputi (with Jane Caputi and Sudie Rakusin). Beacon Press, 1987. ISBN 0807067067
• Outercourse: The Bedazzling Voyage, Containing Recollections from My Logbook of a Radical Feminist Philosopher. HarperSanFrancisco, 1992. ISBN 0062501941
• Quintessence... Realizing the Archaic Future: A Radical Elemental Feminist Manifesto. Beacon Press, 1998. ISBN 0807067903
• Amazon Grace: Re-Calling the Courage to Sin Big. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. ISBN 1403968535

[edit] External links

• Mary Daly's Official Website
• Mary Daly on the GLBTQ encyclopedia.
• CDDC website
• New York University website re "Wickedary"
• Interview with Mary Daly on KDVS, April 5 2006

Persondata
NAME	Daly, Mary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Feminist theologian
DATE OF BIRTH	October 16, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH	Schenectady, New York, USA
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH